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Water–Sulfuric Acid Foam as a Possible Habitat for Hypothetical Microbial Community in the Cloud Layer of Venus

The data available at the moment suggest that ancient Venus was covered by extensive bodies of water which could harbor life. Later, however, the drastic overheating of the planet made the surface of Venus uninhabitable for Earth-type life forms. Nevertheless, hypothetical Venusian organisms could h...

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Autores principales: Skladnev, Dmitry A., Karlov, Sergei P., Khrunyk, Yuliya Y., Kotsyurbenko, Oleg R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8540952/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34685405
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life11101034
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author Skladnev, Dmitry A.
Karlov, Sergei P.
Khrunyk, Yuliya Y.
Kotsyurbenko, Oleg R.
author_facet Skladnev, Dmitry A.
Karlov, Sergei P.
Khrunyk, Yuliya Y.
Kotsyurbenko, Oleg R.
author_sort Skladnev, Dmitry A.
collection PubMed
description The data available at the moment suggest that ancient Venus was covered by extensive bodies of water which could harbor life. Later, however, the drastic overheating of the planet made the surface of Venus uninhabitable for Earth-type life forms. Nevertheless, hypothetical Venusian organisms could have gradually adapted to conditions within the cloud layer of Venus—the only niche containing liquid water where the Earth-type extremophiles could survive. Here we hypothesize that the unified internal volume of a microbial community habitat is represented by the heterophase liquid-gas foam structure of Venusian clouds. Such unity of internal space within foam water volume facilitates microbial cells movements and trophic interactions between microorganisms that creates favorable conditions for the effective development of a true microbial community. The stabilization of a foam heterophase structure can be provided by various surfactants including those synthesized by living cells and products released during cell lysis. Such a foam system could harbor a microbial community of different species of (poly)extremophilic microorganisms that are capable of photo- and chemosynthesis and may be closely integrated into aero-geochemical processes including the processes of high-temperature polymer synthesis on the planet’s surface. Different complex nanostructures transferred to the cloud layers by convection flows could further contribute to the stabilization of heterophase liquid-gas foam structure and participate in chemical and photochemical reactions, thus supporting ecosystem stability.
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spelling pubmed-85409522021-10-24 Water–Sulfuric Acid Foam as a Possible Habitat for Hypothetical Microbial Community in the Cloud Layer of Venus Skladnev, Dmitry A. Karlov, Sergei P. Khrunyk, Yuliya Y. Kotsyurbenko, Oleg R. Life (Basel) Hypothesis The data available at the moment suggest that ancient Venus was covered by extensive bodies of water which could harbor life. Later, however, the drastic overheating of the planet made the surface of Venus uninhabitable for Earth-type life forms. Nevertheless, hypothetical Venusian organisms could have gradually adapted to conditions within the cloud layer of Venus—the only niche containing liquid water where the Earth-type extremophiles could survive. Here we hypothesize that the unified internal volume of a microbial community habitat is represented by the heterophase liquid-gas foam structure of Venusian clouds. Such unity of internal space within foam water volume facilitates microbial cells movements and trophic interactions between microorganisms that creates favorable conditions for the effective development of a true microbial community. The stabilization of a foam heterophase structure can be provided by various surfactants including those synthesized by living cells and products released during cell lysis. Such a foam system could harbor a microbial community of different species of (poly)extremophilic microorganisms that are capable of photo- and chemosynthesis and may be closely integrated into aero-geochemical processes including the processes of high-temperature polymer synthesis on the planet’s surface. Different complex nanostructures transferred to the cloud layers by convection flows could further contribute to the stabilization of heterophase liquid-gas foam structure and participate in chemical and photochemical reactions, thus supporting ecosystem stability. MDPI 2021-09-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8540952/ /pubmed/34685405 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life11101034 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Hypothesis
Skladnev, Dmitry A.
Karlov, Sergei P.
Khrunyk, Yuliya Y.
Kotsyurbenko, Oleg R.
Water–Sulfuric Acid Foam as a Possible Habitat for Hypothetical Microbial Community in the Cloud Layer of Venus
title Water–Sulfuric Acid Foam as a Possible Habitat for Hypothetical Microbial Community in the Cloud Layer of Venus
title_full Water–Sulfuric Acid Foam as a Possible Habitat for Hypothetical Microbial Community in the Cloud Layer of Venus
title_fullStr Water–Sulfuric Acid Foam as a Possible Habitat for Hypothetical Microbial Community in the Cloud Layer of Venus
title_full_unstemmed Water–Sulfuric Acid Foam as a Possible Habitat for Hypothetical Microbial Community in the Cloud Layer of Venus
title_short Water–Sulfuric Acid Foam as a Possible Habitat for Hypothetical Microbial Community in the Cloud Layer of Venus
title_sort water–sulfuric acid foam as a possible habitat for hypothetical microbial community in the cloud layer of venus
topic Hypothesis
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8540952/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34685405
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life11101034
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